Why must we hate others? When someone takes issue with you for your skin colour, weight, gender, sexual orientation or simply your actions, is their grievance really with you? Even if you have directly harmed the other, what is it that is really causing them distress?
It is your reactions, your mental interpretations and your emotions that dictate your responses but it is easier and perhaps more cathartic to blame other humans. It makes us feel more secure in ourselves that we are not like those who are different (worse) than us. We have often demonized entire cultures of peoples throughout history in order to justify our own existences.
But this is an old way of thinking. All humans are essentially the same with differing genetic codes and experiences. We all feel the same powerful and motivating feelings and thinking of humans as any different should no longer be acceptable. Hurting others can no longer be tolerated.
We may need an other to demonize on occasion however. History has also shown us that the idea of an other enemy can be incredibly motivating as with the United States space race with the Soviet Union that took humanity to the moon. This is perhaps the greatest achievement of our species and it was achieved through rivalry. So what are we to do?
Why can’t death be the enemy? Why can’t we be trying to beat death? Each person feels the call of the void behind our eyes. It screams all the negativity in the world into our ears. It creates unreal expectations and causes friction between us and our loved ones and generally destroys lives, all because we desire perfect experiences during our short time on this side of the vale. That is the true enemy.
All life is awesome. Where their is life, there is the potential for greatness. Each of us is capable of incredible feats. This is why every human is deserving of respect, praise and even worship. We are the living and together we can hate the dead. We can despise our flaws even as we accept them because we know that we can overcome them. We can use our time before we give in to the eternal sleep to realize the full extent of our waking selves, to love those who are the same as us and to seek out new forms of being, on this world and those far away.
Perhaps that is all we need to know. Maybe the great enemy we need to loathe in order to fuel ourselves has been with us all along, waiting for us to fail but, as Beric Dondarrion says, “We won’t find much joy while we’re here but we can keep others alive.”
“Death is the enemy, the first enemy and the last. The enemy always wins but we still have to fight him and maybe that’s enough.”
We can come together over our despise of the great other: death and maybe... that’s enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DcAbD0_H3k
